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-‘suayecr: THE LEE: HARVEY OSWALD CASE © #351164

| 2025 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992 |
wiv itin E

(o..onat Bla No. 10 ti
3010-104 ( : ‘ Cc!

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UNITED STATES GOViANMENT .:

Memorandum ©

_TO : Piles ws . DATE: «29 January 1964

FROM : -M. D. Stevens

ae) vate

1. According to a newspaper ° ‘Colum. of "Allen and Scott" in-the

' Chicago American of 6 December 1963, on the OSWALD Case, Abram CHAYES,

legal Officer of the State Department, was one. of two persons im-

. mediately responsible for OSWALD's being permitted to return:to the

United States from the Soviet Union in June 1962.. The other individual:
named was Llewellyn THOMPSON, the then Ambassador to Russia. ‘Another - -
said to have been involved in the handling of OSWALD 's case -was Semel
WISE, Counsel, of the American Embassy in Moscow.

2. Abram CHAYES, #352234, who as of 16 February 1961 was described
as "the new Counsel in State", was granted Security approval for liaison
contact with J. Foster COBLINS (in the office of the Chief of the Covert
Action Staff) on 6-March 1961. ‘The request for CHAYES' clearance was a
"Blanket" request to permit discussion with him of NSC 5412/2 matters on
a need-to-know basis. . .

3. In September 1961 there was a White House namecheck request on

CHAYES' wife Antonia (Toni) Leigh CHAYES, nee: HANDLER. /

. 4. Im March. 1962, CHAYES was grented a renewal of his Liaison are
contact clearance with C/CA on a continuing basis. This time his contact -
was Archibald ROOSEVELT, ob

5. on 10 February 1962, HUMAN EVENTS reported as follows with 7
reference to CHAYES: ,

"SOFT ON COMMUNISM: Representative Francis E. Walter (Ro-Pas),
Chairman of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, has
scored the new State Department regulations on passports, claim-
‘ing they would allow Reds denied passports to "rifie freely the
. confidential files of the FBI, the CIA and other investigative
agencies." The man behind the new regulations, which Walter —
- claims violate the Internal Security Act. of 1950, is reportedly
State's chief legal officer, Abram Chayes. Chayes, a Kennedy ~~
appointee, is an ex-Harvard professor who was Chester Bowles *
top legal adviser when Bowles was Governor of Connecticut.
Walter has introduced legislation - -to remedy the ‘new passport ~

regulations “
| SECRET enomet nner 211029

- _ GROUP 1
Exctoded from automatic!

: Cawngrading and

declassification

ere

for FOIA Review on ‘FRB wi


14-0000

6. Samuel WISE, “Counsel in the American Embassy in Moscow" who
is referred to above, may well be Samel Griffin WISE Jr., #74574,
SD & SSD, who apparently was once a contract employee on (ARACTIVE.
[The State Department reviewed WISE's file on 2 June 1954; and as of
September 1962 a Samuel G. WISE was Second Secretary of the American~
Embassy in Moscow. At that time WISE advised in a cable to the State
Department that it appeared that Bruce Frederick DAVIS, #352267, who
defected from the United States Army in Germany on 18 August 1960, had
not expatriated himself. DAVIS' case is very similar to that of
OSWALD; and he, like OSWALD, lived in the Soviet Union for two years
after his defection and prior to making application for return to the
United States./

7. WISE was an applicant for CIA employment in early 1953 and
was security approved subject to polygraph on 11 August 1953. He did
not enter on duty and in September 1953 the office which had been
interested in him was "no longer interested". On 13 November 1953,
WISE was granted a CSA to permit his use as a contract employee on
CARACTIVE in New York City. His CSA was cancelled on ak March 1958.

8. WISE was named ds a friend of ‘Willien Orville MONSELL, #61693-DLj
during an investigation of the latter for possible CIA employment” in 1952.
WISE, according to MUNSELL's landlady and social acquaintance in Washington,

' D.C. during the period of about a year which ended in April 1952, was the

only person she knew by name with whom(MUNSELD.was friendly. According

to the informant, WISE was a student at Columbia University whose address
was 423 Furnald Hall. (MUNSELD) was Security disapproved for CIA employment
in June 1952 because of his chose association on a professional and social
basis, while attending Denver University from 196 + to 1951, with persons
of questionable loyality. In November 1954, (MUNSELL) was of interest to
project QYALLVE with reference to assignment to! ‘Dhahran; ‘Saudi udi_ Arabia;
however, the interested office withdrew their request on him, after
Security advised of the derogatory information regarding him.

9. WISE from 1951. to 1954 attended Scarsdale High School in Scarsdale,
New York, which was attacked by a Citizen's Group, which alleged Communist

influence in the school system. He had several questionable associates in
addition to’ MUNSELD.

Ma a Klecws

M. D. Stevens

ScunET

GROUP 1
Excluded from automatic

downgrading and
dectassification


